An essay couched as a book review examines the close link between reducing poverty and increased growth (via San Francisco Chronicle, originally in the Washington Post).

The writer has been reading Jagdish Bhagwati's new book "In Defense of Globalization" and he examines at how India tackled the problem of poverty in the '60s and how overall growth (rather than income redistribution) is the silver bullet. Bhagwati was a member of the Planning Commission and is currently an eminent professor at Columbia University and a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The reviewer/essayist finds a curious inversion: India used to understand growth's importance (Nehru was a champion) but didn't know how to achieve it. Now with the reforms in place for over a decade, India knows how to achieve growth but the election results mean that the people may have lost sight of growth's importance.